While I was fast asleep, Microsoft unveiled the SKUs for Windows 8 - and we're in for a surprise. Yes, after years and years of fully deserved mockery for releasing 343 versions of each Windows release, the company has seen the light and reduced everything to just four - of which only two, Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro, will be freely available in stores.

I tried both previews and that "except for the missing start menu" thing is a huge dealbreaker for me. They could've left some kind of setting to turn it on or off but they removed the thing completely which suggests they are treating the "legacy" desktop as a 2nd class citizen.

I always assumed that some freeware app would pop up to fill the void as has occurred in the past when Micro$haft decided to remove some feature or other that many people use and rely on. It's going to be a bit unrealistic to expect hundreds of thousands of Windows users who've been using Windows since Windows 95 debuted to just suddenly start doing things differently. Old habits die hard.